Anglo American Contemplating Involvement in Russia

MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) – Mining giant Anglo American has discussed the possibility of launching operations in Russia with officials form the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology.

Russian Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Sergei Donskoy held a working meeting with Anglo American’s Senior Executive Vice President for Business Development Paul Cahill to discuss the corporation’s investment in the Russian mining sector, the Natural Resources Ministry’s press office said.

“This was a protocol meeting, during which the company expressed interest in working in Russia,” ministry’s spokesman Nikolai Gudkov told Interfax. Moreover, Anglo American wanted to know about the changes made to the mining law.

The new amendments to the mining law prohibit foreign companies from mining on federal land containing deposits of uranium, diamonds, high-purity natural quartz, yttric rare-earth metals, nickel, cobalt, tantalum, niobium, beryllium, lithium, platinum group metals.

Moreover, the mining law prohibits the sale to foreign companies of more than 10% of a company that owns licenses to federal fields. The only exceptions are deals made at the government’s prompting.

It was reported earlier that in 2006 Anglo American and Severstal set up an alliance for nickel, copper and zinc exploration in Russia. The companies plan to work in Karelia and the Murmansk region.

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